


Supermoon

by qwanderer



Series: Reborn Fox [5]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Avengers references, Canon Temporary Character Death, Changing Tenses, Gen, M/M, Minor Character Death, On Purpose, Spoilers for S5A, Technobabble, Underage Kissing, Werefox Stiles, Werewolf Mates, Yes they fricking finally kiss!, basically this series is becoming the new Midnight Mystery, but includes many events from the last three eps as well, diverges after Ouroboros, except instead of blue!Loki you get fox!Stiles, this just got very deathy all of a sudden
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-29
Updated: 2015-09-05
Packaged: 2018-04-17 19:02:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 16,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4677767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/qwanderer/pseuds/qwanderer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a universe where Theo made his move a few days too early, he has to contend with all sorts of unanticipated factors - Stiles's change in species, the Pack pulling back together on its own, and an overlooked animal poking his head out of the woods to join in the fight. But he can still cause a lot of chaos once the Supermoon throws the whole supernatural world into a supercharged frenzy. He'll just need to work a little harder than the few well-placed lies he would have preferred.</p><p>"What <em>are</em> these?" Lydia settled into his desk chair and inched his laptop closer. "Mallt-y-Nos? Adult bone marrow stem cells? Yggdrasil? Lateralization of brain function? Is there a method to your madness, here?"</p><p>Stiles shrugged. "Is letting the fox take the reins more method, or more madness, do you think?"</p><p>"I'm... really not sure," she said, "but as the resident expert in doing things to get information that everybody else sees as crazy, like screaming and then waiting to hear the echoes... I can't really judge."</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Following the Beast

**Author's Note:**

> So hey, this has spoilers! Right up through the end of 5a and a lot of supposition about what might be up in 5b. 
> 
> I'm sticking with the timeline landmarks I set up with the first fic in this series, _woke up to you_ , written between Ouroboros and Lies of Omission. This fic begins during the training session mentioned in that story. It should cover events through the time period of the summer finale. I'm hoping the timeline will be clear enough - figuring out what happened when in canon is hard enough without trying to figure out how else it might have happened, and weaving the newest events into an existing plot. If you have questions, please do ask! PS my tumblr ask is [here](http://qwanderer.tumblr.com/ask), if you'd rather.
> 
> If you've been reading this series when it pops up in the Sterek tag, two things: 1. there will be unequivocal Sterek in this story, I promise! 2. don't miss the previous story in the series if you're curious about that loud argument Stiles and Malia had in _worth it._
> 
> Tense changes are only during Stiles's perspective, and, as in _Past Tense_ , indicate a shift in mindset between Stiles and Stiles-fox.
> 
> I've got a lot of the last chapter written (and it's going to contain my headcanon full name for Stiles), it's everything in the middle I still need to figure out! I'll try to get chapters posted when I can.

They were just getting ready to start Stiles's second shifting lesson. Derek was already out of his clothes and starting to sprout fur, where Stiles was a little more self-conscious with Malia here this time (which was a strange, new development in the usually entirely unselfconscious dynamic between them). 

But the delay just meant that Stiles noticed that Scott had that look on his face, one Stiles knew far too well. The 'I am not going to have an asthma attack right now, damn it' look. 

He frowned at his best friend and Alpha. "Scott, are you all right?" he asked, moving closer. "You look a little not all right. We can do this another time. Actually, I'm thinking we should." 

Scott shook his head stubbornly. "We all need to train, we all need to get this stuff under control, because the Dread Doctors are out there and they're killing people." He took out his inhaler, an object Stiles had fervently hoped never to see again. 

"When did you start using your inhaler again?" 

But before Scott could even bring the thing to his mouth, Derek pounced, teeth digging into the plastic, tearing it out of Scott's hands. 

"Hey!" Stiles protested on Scott's behalf. "He needs that!" 

The black wolf shook his head, growling, then, slowly, he shifted back, blue eyes glaring. "Wolfsbane," he told them, holding up the inhaler. "Where did you get this?" 

"Someone had it in school," Scott gasped. "The Dread Doctors stepped on my old one." 

"I smelled it last time but I figured you were carrying some on purpose. They probably dosed you some other way at first. Then they arranged for you to dose yourself." 

"Seriously," Malia said, looking at Scott, incredibly matter-of-fact about the whole situation despite varying degrees of nakedness, including her being topless. "You don't look so good. Maybe you should go rest. Or get some help." 

Scott shook his head again. "I'll survive. I'll heal. We need to train. We need to be ready." 

"We _need_ to be able to breathe." Stiles was rifling through his bag, then tossed Scott a bottle of pills. "Seriously, if you're going to insist on being here, at least take an adderall. You know they double as bronchodilators in a pinch." 

Scott nodded grimly, and took one of the offered pills. 

"That was not good. I'm glad someone realized." Stiles came up and hugged him gently. "And if you're not feeling better in twenty, we're leaving, all right?" 

"I'm your Alpha!" Scott huffed. 

"Foxes aren't great with authority!" Stiles shot back, turning to face Derek, who was watching with an inscrutable expression on his face. 

Stiles marched right up to him, and gave him the tight, exuberant hug he'd wanted to give Scott, but hadn't dared, between the lung problems and the fresh-shifter-unaware-of-his-own-strength problem. "Thanks, Derek," he said. "That could have been really bad." 

Derek was stiff for a moment, then put his arms around Stiles, comfortably warm and sturdy and alive. 

He'd needed that. 

Stiles pulled away at last, eyes lingering on Scott, but the Alpha already seemed to be doing better. Werewolf healing, werewolf metabolism. Magical things. 

Stiles was ready to be a fox, now. Ready for things to be simpler, less stressful. 

He shucked off the last of his clothes, and he changed. 

The fox shoves his nose into Scott's hand, sniffing and nuzzling, then goes to explore. The plastic and metal canister smells strange. The fox puts his nose to it, but it makes all the fur on his tail stand on end, so he backs away. 

Now he'll know that smell. That smell is bad business. 

* * *

Derek caught up to Scott, who was on his way home now, breathing normally now and not much slowed down by the whole thing. 

"Hey, thanks, man," Scott said. "That was a good save. I don't know how I didn't catch that." 

Derek shrugged. "Bitten wolf, spent too much time around hunters. They always smell of it a little." 

Scott laughed a little, dryly. "I suppose." 

"The Dread Doctors are dangerous to this pack. They're after us. This proves it. What else do you need, to fight them?" 

"I was hoping you could tell me some of that, actually," Scott told him. "The Dread Doctors have been in this town before. Decades ago. The Hales would have been the pack here then, right? When we talked to Dr. Valack, he told us it was just like this. Teenagers being experimented on, dying. No one remembering seeing them. Do you know anything about that?" 

"No," Derek said, frowning, trying to think. "I don't. But I can ask my mother. If you'll help me." 

* * *

Studying, with the fox in his head, it's... something different. It's like his ADHD has gained a new dimension. There's a lot that can get his attention right away, and a lot that he just can't focus on at all. He's off his adderall for the moment, at Melissa's suggestion, so he can develop a new baseline before seeing what it does to a werefox. 

Reading is a fresh torture, but putting things together, laying them out visually, that he can still do, can maybe do better. After hearing about Kira and her fox having problems with the Dread Doctors book until she stopped paying attention to the story, Stiles thinks reading comprehension is maybe something he should leave until he's back on the amphetamines. But he has an idea about other ways of researching. 

He goes on Wikipedia and lets his fox at it, just letting instinct guide him, tell him which link to click, until he's got eleven tabs open and no idea how any of them relate to the subject at hand. 

"Stiles? Stiles!" 

Lydia was snapping her fingers in front of his face. 

"Oh! Hey!" Stiles looked up at her irritated face. "Find anything?" 

"Well, I found out that nobody knows how to track beings that try their best to act like they don't exist in this dimension at all." She tossed her hair. "What about you?" 

"I have no freaking idea. You wanna take a look at these tabs for me? I'm going to go stare at the mystery board for a while." 

"What _are_ these?" Lydia settled into his desk chair and inched his laptop closer. "Mallt-y-Nos? Adult bone marrow stem cells? Yggdrasil? Lateralization of brain function? Is there a method to your madness, here?" 

Stiles shrugged. "Is letting the fox take the reins more method, or more madness, do you think?" 

"I'm... really not sure," she said, "but as the resident expert in doing things to get information that everybody else sees as crazy, like screaming and then waiting to hear the echoes... I can't really judge." 

"Well, if it turns out that it's more of a garbage-out situation, I can always revisit the adderall method." 

Stiles looked at the board, looked at all the clues laid out on it. He'd spent so much time trying to figure this out, spent so much time looking at these same clues. 

Now he looks past it. Doesn't try to see, or connect. He is empty, simple, animal. 

_Theo_. 

The heavy dread in his belly always comes back to Theo. 

* * *

Talking with his mother was as intense as always... both good and bad. Derek was breathing hard, and the scars on his neck crawled and itched as they healed. But whether or not he'd failed his first Alpha and her pack wasn't a question for right now. Right now he needed to do his best for his new Alpha, his new pack. 

"What did you see?" Scott asked. "How much did she know?" 

Derek took a breath, finding words. This was a little something like coming back from being the wolf. 

"The Hales were right at the center of it," Derek answered, clearing his throat of the roughness it had acquired. "Mom... she couldn't figure out how to find them and kill them. But they needed to be stopped. There was only one way she could think of. The Dread Doctors had intertwined their power with the Nemeton's. The only way to stop them was to cut it down. So we did. The Hales cut down the Nemeton. And the Doctors left, because it made the town useless. But that also left Beacon Hills open to all the disasters since." 

Scott scowled. "We can't exactly cut down a stump," he said. 

"It's got some of its power back, and they're using that, but they're not tied to it yet. They can't be, while it's still a stump." 

Scott raised his eyebrows. "So this... the Dread Doctors we're fighting now... we're basically fighting them on easy mode?" 

Derek nodded. "And that won't last past the Supermoon, if I'm right about what they're planning." 

"You mean, this full moon, they can grow the Nemeton back?" 

"And then they'll be unstoppable again." 

"So what do we do?" his Alpha asked him. 

"We need to kill them before that." 

Scott sighed harshly. "Great. Just what we need. Another deadline." He stood, shaking looseness into his joints. "We'd better get started." 

No argument about the killing. Derek thought the whole Stiles crisis might have had something to do with that change. 

"There's something else," Derek told him. "Not about the doctors themselves, but about the Desert Wolf. Why Peter agreed to give Malia away. It was for her own safety. Malia had to be hidden because the Desert Wolf was involved in a secret breeding program, supplying young werecoyotes to the Doctors. They demanded complete secrecy." 

"We'll have to look out for her," Scott agreed. "But do you think that once the Dread Doctors are defeated, the Desert Wolf will still want to keep their secret?" 

"It's her secret, too," Derek said, not knowing how else to answer. 

"So we'll do our best to protect Malia." 

The strength of Scott's voice when he said that reassured Derek that, although no one could ever replace his mother, Scott was the right Alpha for Beacon Hills right now. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Amphetamines are no longer the recommended treatment for asthma, and Adderall should not be considered an alternative for a rescue inhaler, for one thing, because it can take up to half an hour to take effect on a human metabolism!
> 
> Raise your hand if you would be interested in a version of this series that's actually in chronological order.


	2. Strange Vibrations

The next afternoon they trained together again, and then that night, they held a pack meeting. Theo didn't show, wouldn't answer his phone, and the pack's mixed relief and suspicion was gratifying to Stiles. It probably had something to do with the last text Scott had sent him, after Scott and Stiles had straightened things out between them: 

_if i even so much as scent you around my pack again you wont have words to describe the pain youll be in_

Stiles kind of wanted to kiss Scott for that text. 

The pack went over everything they knew about the Doctors and their weaknesses, which wasn't much. 

"We know that even people who have seen them, remembered them, haven't seen their faces," Lydia said. 

"We know that they, or Theo, have a way of putting wolfsbane into an inhaler enough like my usual one that I never thought to be suspicious of it," Scott pointed out. 

"And they're all sort of... messed up, they've got the whole vibration thing going on, which is very weird," said Stiles. "Hey, if they're, like, out of phase with normal spacetime, don't look at me like that, Lydia, I know it doesn't make science-sense, is it possible they can't breathe regular air? Like if we took off their masks, would they choke on the air because it's not on their super-special frequency?" 

"It's a good thought," Scott said, "but let's try not to rely on that theory." 

"Yeah, finding them is the trouble," Malia agreed. "And then if clawing them to pieces doesn't kill them, I doubt that will." 

"We should be prepared, though," Derek said, unearthing the blowtorch he'd used to get Scott's tattoo to stick. 

"So if they need the Nemeton's energy to do their work," Lydia began, "but cutting down the central tree cut them off from that energy, do they need to go to the Nemeton to get that connection back?" 

"They were lurking in that neck of the woods," Stiles pointed out, and then swallowed loudly as he heard himself, as the memories invited themselves back. 

"They won't be fully connected unless they can restore the Nemeton," said Derek. "They probably have to come back to draw on its power." 

"Okay, so everything the Doctors do is not quite scientific and not quite supernatural," Stiles mused. "Maybe to track them, we need to do something in the middle there, too. Combine a supernatural sense of hearing and a connection to the Nemeton with some kind of... spectrometer, seismometer, something that can measure their frequency." 

"You think you can figure out how to do that before tomorrow night?" Lydia asked. 

"I think maybe the fox can," Stiles answered, and he cracked his knuckles. "Do we still have the pieces of that busted cell phone jammer?" 

* * *

Stiles doesn't have two minds, he isn't two people, but he does have two modes. What he's begun to call the fox isn't a new one, it's just easier now to slip into, to use. He's always had a gift for following his interests, following his natural curiosity to the exclusion of anything else. 

Being taken over by the Nogitsune just made it easier to trust that part of himself. To let himself be impulsive, out of control. 

He needs to find the Doctors, and he has these tools to do it: the remains of a high-powered cell phone jammer and some parts from an old radio Derek had dug up, some very sensitive supernatural fox ears, and a black shadow in his heart that's permanently connected to the darkest parts of the Nemeton's power. 

He's never wanted to find out where that thread would lead when he pulled on it, not really, but tonight, he needs to know. 

He plays with the electronics parts, hooking up the old radio speaker backwards and listening to it through a sacrificed pair of earbuds spliced into the system, amplifying and adjusting and listening with all of his being, all of his shifter ears and all of his hollow heart. 

And a certainty about where the Dread Doctors are begins to dawn. 

He chases, carrying his armful of electronics, and the pack follows. 

(Scott makes Mason stay behind. Stiles has a twinge remembering being the untrained human of the pack, the easily bruised one, but it's not just that he's on the other side now, it's that their pack has grown. Their pack is mighty. Scott's an Alpha, Derek is wiser, Lydia's honed her talents. Malia and Liam and Hayden are with them. Mason is pack, in a lot of ways, but he's not ready to join them tonight.) 

Stiles feels the Doctors close now, and now he _smells_ them, and it lights up his whole body with the knowledge of what's coming, the strength of his limbs increasing with tomorrow's Supermoon. He's never fought with his teeth and claws, not for real. He's trained with the others. But the upcoming fight pounds in his head like nothing he's ever felt. 

_Control is overrated. Let it happen._

Malia and Scott and Lydia form a cluster, Lydia yelling warnings as the other two take turns in attack and defense. They go for the first horrific figure that they stumble across in the lair. Liam and Hayden go one way, and Derek follows Stiles the other, seeking out the rest of the trio. 

Something in him knows he doesn't need to stay and defend Scott. Something in him knows he has to find the others, hunt them down. 

He catches the scent of the second Dread Doctor, and he knows he's all teeth and claws and glowing eyes. He drops the equipment with a clatter. He's faster, louder - he's the distraction in this fight. The big black wolf with the blowtorch is the quiet one, is the one who can get behind their enemy and take them out for good. 

And Derek does, breaking the Dread Doctor's neck with an odd metallic sound and then pulling off his helmet for good measure, not really caring which gives way first, the helmet or the neck. 

It's the helmet, and the face under it is an ugly patchwork. Quicksilver stains the mottled lips. 

Good enough, Stiles thinks, the fox in him snarling in satisfaction. Pride at their teamwork. 

He doesn't dwell on the strangeness of that. He just leads them onwards, to where Liam and Hayden have cornered the third. 

Not until they're done, and the last of the Dread Doctors is dead, the pack all gathered, assessing their injuries. Malia has a nasty break, which will heal. Hayden feels weak and dizzy, which could be the memories and imagery of being in this place, or it could be something more dangerous. Stiles had a shiny burn from the blowtorch, but it's already mostly gone. Now he mostly just feels sick and dizzy, too. 

It's time to stop himself from being everywhere at once and deal with the practicalities of human life. 

They cut off the Doctors' heads, just to be sure, and then, for the moment, left them. 

They all limped back to the loft, Stiles texting his dad to let him know he'd be spending the night with the pack, and when his text was returned and acknowledged, he felt like he could relax, felt like he could sleep for ages. So when they all piled onto Derek's bed to sleep off the fight, Stiles didn't argue, just reveled in the warmth of his pack, the sound of breathing, the weight of Scott across his legs and Derek's arm against his chest. 

* * *

Stiles came awake to find that Derek was staring at him. 

Not frowny, like usual. Soft, slightly bemused, half-awake. They were the only ones still in bed, Stiles was half-draped over Derek, almost pushing him to the edge, and Derek hadn't shoved Stiles off of him when he'd woken up. 

"You're such a marshmallow under all that crustiness," Stiles rasped at him, smiling. 

"I guess fire doesn't change what you're made of in the middle," Derek murmured back. 

"Oh my God," Stiles said. "Did I just - did _you_ just - okay, I'd like to remind everyone for the record that I have very little control over what comes out of my mouth before the coffee goes in." He wanted to bury his head in shame, but realized that would either mean budging over or face-planting almost directly onto Derek's nipple. 

"It's okay," Derek offered, smirking at him. "It was time. I'm glad I can joke about it. It means I'm not always thinking about the things I don't have anymore." 

They were still kind of smiling uncertainly at each other when there was a knock at the door, and Stiles twisted just in time to see Scott open the door for Mason, who was weighted down with several bags, and from the smell, they contained breakfast. 

"You are a glorious angel of mercy," Stiles told him immediately. "Minus the wings." 

"I must have left them at home," Mason answered, stepping inside. "Because clearly I am the Sam Wilson of this group of idiot superheroes." 

Stiles grinned, clambering out of bed. "Cool, can I be the resident genius billionaire playboy philanthropist?" 

Lydia stepped out of the bathroom, drying her hair. "Please, you wish." 

"You would say that, Pepper." 

"You will never call me that again." 

"Yes, Ma'am." Never out loud. 

The pack still seemed to want to cling together, Derek against one of Stiles's shoulders as he looked at the breakfast options, Lydia leaning on the other, and Scott with his chin on Stiles's shoulder and arms draped around the other two. Liam supported Hayden, who wasn't looking that great, despite the night of rest, bringing her to join the group. And Malia helped Mason get everything out of the bags he'd brought in. 

Stiles joyfully ate his share of caffeine, sugary pastries and eggs, teased Scott about his similarities to Cap, and enjoyed the company of the pack, but underneath everything he was about to jump out of his skin at every moment and he wasn't really sure why. 

Probably had something to do with tonight's supermoon. 

As everyone else got ready for at least attempting to start the day like it was a normal Friday at school, Stiles turned to Derek. 

"So hey, I haven't been getting shit out of classes since getting bitten and going off my Adderall provisionally, and there's a mad scientist lair out there just begging to be studied. Plus I'm freshly bitten and there's this whole supermoon thing going on. I should probably go poke around in a place not full of aggravating schoolmates and/or teachers, and you should probably come with and make sure I don't get myself into huge amounts of trouble." 

Derek looked to Scott. 

"It's a decent plan," Scott agreed. "Yeah, go for it." 

So when everyone else left, Stiles stayed, helped Derek clean up the mess of breakfast. 

It was interesting, being quiet and domestic with Derek while the energy of the moon vibrated under their skins. It was interesting, being able to smell the mixture of tension and contentment on Derek and know that Derek probably smelled something similar on him. Stiles usually talked to distract, but there was something about smelling each other's emotions that made that seem unnecessary - at least for this little while, as their hands were busy and, between the two of them, it didn't feel as if there was anything to hide. 

But as they walked towards the Doctors' lair, the restless tension came back, and Stiles fell back into his usual chatter. 

"This is supposed to be a quiet town, you know? A quiet county with not a lot of people or criminal activity. But under the surface, it's just... so messed up." 

Stiles was surprised when Derek picked up his side of the conversation and actually talked. 

"It makes me wonder if my parents would have cut down the Nemeton if they'd known what would happen here afterwards. The Hale pack was strong then. Maybe stronger than us. If they'd known, would they have found a way to kill the Doctors then?" 

Stiles shook his head. "We've got enough to worry about without what-ifs. They're just... they're no good. At a certain point I realized wondering what would have happened if I'd never gotten Scott bitten was taking up way too much of my brain power. Valuable brain power. What's done is done and we just have to... deal." He laughed dryly. "But I don't even have to go into what-ifs to wonder how differently my dad and I handle things. If I've learned enough from him. If maybe I should be teaching him more of what I've learned myself. ...God, sometimes I lie awake at night and try to figure out which one of the two of us has seen more dead bodies. And we've definitely both seen more than enough." 

Derek just looked at him thoughtfully for a moment as they walked. "You're lucky to have him," Derek said at last. 

"God, do I ever know that." Stiles blew out a breath, looking around at the streets and wooded verges that he'd barely taken in the night before in his hurry. "I know how easy it is to lose people. Especially people who care enough to stick their necks out to save other people." He glanced sideways at Derek. "I'm so lucky to still have him, and Scott, and Melissa. Lydia. They've all been part of my life since pretty much before I can remember. I can't even imagine having to start all over again from scratch." 

"I didn't want to," Derek admitted. "I wanted to stay lost in the woods. But you keep blundering in and finding me. And it keeps being worth it to follow you out." 

Stiles smiled crookedly, feeling warm all through, with a special guest tingle in his gut. "Well, then, I'm glad to, y'know, blunder," he sputtered, wondering how deep he was blushing. 

* * *

The bodies of the Doctors had continued to drain overnight, and now they were all three lying in an enormous puddle of what was... mostly mercury, as far as Stiles could tell. 

"Oh, shit, that can't have been healthy," Stiles remarked at the sight. "Wonder if that had anything to do with how they kept themselves all vibrate-y and everything." 

Derek shrugged, and started sniffing at everything, pointing out whenever he caught a scent he recognized. "Werewolf blood," he pointed at once, or "Kanima venom." Stiles filed away the information as it flowed in, searching for any kind of record of the Doctors' experiments, or evidence of their methods. 

If they were going to keep Hayden safe, they needed to know what had been done to her. Corey too, Stiles reminded himself, but he hadn't seemed interested in being pack. 

Stiles wondered when, exactly, he'd begun to think of himself as a pack member first and a high school student and resident of the town second. He suspected it was farther back than he wanted to admit, maybe even before the beginning of Junior year. Definitely before Scott had made that same shift. Scott still tried to keep both roles in balance. Stiles wanted to graduate, go to college, yeah, but... this stuff was his life. It was what he _did_. He'd never be able to just... get some job, and let that be what he thought about all day. He'd always be more interested in poking his nose into the supernatural, preparing and protecting his pack for whatever might be coming for them. 

He filled his phone with pictures and notes, documenting everything that was here, whether he could discern any meaning from it or not. 

* * *

Scott had not succeeded in having a normal day at school. 

Corey was dead. 

Scott had followed after the ambulance to the hospital, and found the chaos that had ensued. With his bloodstream full of mercury and the supermoon pulling at the supernatural in his nature, he'd been impossible to get through to, and only werewolves had any chance of stopping him, now that the Dread Doctors were dead. 

He was invisible, and he was viciously angry, and Scott followed him with werewolf hearing and smell, trying to stop anyone else from getting hurt, not wanting to hurt Corey. It was an exhausting fight. 

Then Corey had gone after his mother, and Scott had stopped pulling his punches. 

That was how he learned that with enough damage, Corey couldn't stay invisible. But he was strong, he healed, he could still deal damage in turn. 

It was one of the hospital security people who had actually killed him, hitting him with a taser shot that his overloaded system just couldn't handle, and Scott hated how relieved he was that he hadn't needed to deal that final blow. 

He would have done it, though, to protect his mother. 

He also hated how willing he'd been to condemn Stiles for doing the same. 

As soon as he knew that his mother was safe and the hospital staff were finding their feet again, he called Liam. 

"We need to get Hayden to the clinic. Something's happening to the chimeras, and it doesn't look good." 

As soon as he'd gotten Liam's agreement, he hung up and called Lydia. 

"What can you tell me about what's happening to Hayden?" he asked her, hoping that she had good news, that Hayden's story didn't have to end like the other chimeras. 

Lydia sighed into the phone. "She's dying," the banshee replied. 

"Why didn't you tell me?" 

"We needed her last night. We needed Liam. You making sad puppy eyes at her and worrying Liam wasn't going to do any of us any good." 

"Well, what _will_ do some good?" he asked, desperation starting in his voice. "The Bite? You knew the Bite would save Stiles. Will the Bite save Hayden?" 

"Scott, nothing can save Hayden." 

Scott hated how dead her voice sounded, flattened, whether by the phone line or by her own sureness. 

"Nothing? There's got to be a way." 

There was the tiniest hiss over the phone, Lydia drawing breath in through her teeth. "...I've got to go back to Jordan. I told him about the bodies and he locked himself in the cells in the Sheriff's station. There's too much death and too many people blaming themselves for being part of it. But everybody dies, Scott. You can't save everybody. You just can't." 

There was silence over the line for a minute before Lydia ended the call. 

Scott obviously wasn't going to give up, though, so he found his mom, pleaded with her to come with him to the clinic, to help Hayden. 

He was starting to see why Derek was so passionate about pack. 

"Of course, Honey," was her quiet reply, and it was the first thing he'd heard since before he left the school that didn't make the moon boil hotter in his blood. 

* * *

"I need to talk to my dad," Stiles decided as they made one last sweep of the Doctors' lair. "I need to tell him about this. Everything we know about the Chimeras. ...And about Donovan." He was vibrating even worse now, both with the need to talk to his father and the fear of how it would go. 

"He's a good cop," Derek replied. 

Stiles checked his phone, saw the texts from Scott. 

_chimeras are getting sick and going nuts. Corey hurt some people before hospital security took him down_

_they had to kill him_

_@ the clinic trying to figure a way to save hayden_

_find anything?_

"Scott needs help at the clinic, though," Stiles said, suddenly undecided. "Hayden's getting sick. I didn't really learn anything that could help. But he needs all the help he can get." 

"So does your dad," Derek argued. "We should keep him in the loop. I'll go see if I can help Scott. I saw everything you did, and I know a little more about healing supernatural creatures." 

Stiles felt solid again. "Yeah," he agreed. "Okay, school's out. I'll see if Malia can meet us on the way and drop us off." 

* * *

It was a little tense, with the three of them in the car. Especially since Derek followed Stiles into the backseat, leaving shotgun vacant. Stiles wasn't completely sure where he stood with Malia, how she would feel if she knew he was thinking about dating someone else. So after he explained what they'd learned, the car fell silent. 

"You know I can smell it on you both, right?" Malia said at last. "It's not like you can hide it." 

Derek looked pained. Stiles stammered. "I don't - I mean, I might - but there's no _it,_ I mean not the kind you'd talk about...." 

She rolled her eyes. "Please. You can talk about anything, Stiles. Now you can get over yourselves or you can walk, you big shifter babies." 

Derek shook his head. "I'll get my car back. After tonight. But for now? We need to stick together as much as possible. And we have more important things to worry about. The supermoon's effect on everything that's out there tonight. The Desert Wolf. We need to keep in contact for your sake, too." 

Malia gritted her teeth so hard they could both hear it. "I know you guys mean well," she said, a little forced, "but the pack has been... weird for me. I need some space. I was thinking of running on my own tonight." 

They both frowned. Then Derek sighed. "I know it doesn't work to try and force people to stay in a pack, or to bond with a pack that doesn't feel right. And I know, from personal experience, that Scott gets that. So it's your choice. But just remember that the pack has your back." 

"And _be careful_ ," Stiles added. "Okay? It's crazy out there right now." 

"I'm always careful," Malia answered. She pulled up in front of the Sheriff's station. "Are you sure you don't want either of us with you for this?" 

"It'll be fine," Stiles said expansively, mostly trying to convince himself. "Besides, you've both got other places to be." 

"You don't have to do this alone," Derek insisted. 

"No, Scott needs help. If you don't go, I will. But I know you know things neither of us does. I know there are things you tried with Cora before you gave up your status. Hayden's pack, okay? Go help her." 

"Stiles, it's your first full moon. It's okay if you need help." 

Stiles frowned slightly. "It... doesn't actually feel too bad. I'm pretty sure I'll be okay until moonrise, I know this deal intimately, from the outside, admittedly, but I'm familiar. From talking Scott, Malia, and Liam through their shifts, and Scott's first shift was near perigee. ...But I'll howl if I need you. I promise." 

Stiles might have been a shifter in his first moon, but he was higher status in Scott's pack than Derek, had always been Scott's second, and Derek felt the need to obey. 

"All right," he answered. "But take this." Derek dug into his pocket, pressed the Hale talisman into Stiles's hand. 

"The sun, the moon and the truth." Stiles squeezed Derek's hand. "I'll see you soon." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this timeline, I've moved Beth's death and Malia's witnessing of it to a few days earlier, the schoolday before the second training session and the argument in _Coyote._ Just in case anyone wondered where it went. Before the finale, I was kind of cherry picking events, but now I'm seeing how the finale events can mesh with my plot, so you'll see a lot that's familiar.
> 
> I promise kisses next chapter!


	3. Patchwork People

The Doctors were dead, but chimeras still appeared, died, and were taken away. When Lydia had told Parrish who was doing it, he'd locked himself up. There was no arguing. Not even when she assured him that whatever happened at the Nemeton now, it wouldn't be tainted by the Dread Doctors. 

Then he told her that he hadn't just been having dreams. He'd been having visions. Of her. 

"What was I doing?" she asked. 

"You were trying to keep me alive." 

"Or maybe I was just trying to get in out of the rain." 

There had been rain that night, right? And thunder? Lots of rain, anyway. Cats and dogs.... 

Stormy nights. The Wild Hunt. 

"Don't go anywhere," Lydia told Parrish. 

He gave her a look through the bars. 

"You know what I mean." 

She went to the library, looked up the Wild Hunt. Remembered what she'd read in Stiles's tabs, days ago, about Mallt-y-Nos. 

Jordan was a Hellhound. He was one of Cŵn Annwn. And Lydia.... 

Lydia, who the Hound had visions of, spurring him on, Lydia who screamed and hunted death.... 

She was Matilda of the Night. 

* * *

Malia came to her den to think a lot. Stiles had started to refer to it as her 'Fortress of Solitude.' It felt appropriate. It was where she went to remember what it had been like to be alone, and why she tried so hard to be pack. 

She was deep in her memories when she heard a rustle at the cave entrance and turned with a snarl. 

It was a coyote. And then it was Theo. 

The question was startled out of her. "How did you do that?" 

"It's not so hard," Theo said with a smirk. 

"No, I know, I'm getting the hang of it. But you were human, in fourth grade, with Scott. You're not a born wolf." 

"No. I'm more than that. I'm a chimera." 

He was with the Doctors. They'd suspected, but they hadn't known. Why would Theo just give them this? 

"Why are you telling me this?" 

"I think you're ready to know." Theo smirked at her. "Coyotes have no loyalty to their packs. I know because I am one. The Dread Doctors found me after the accident that killed my parents and mostly killed me. They replaced some of my organs, and the right lobe of my brain, with parts from a specially bred werecoyote. So I'm something unique, a true chimera, and part of me has always known how to shift." 

Malia felt sick, thinking of it. She knew she wouldn't be able to tell if he was telling the truth. But just the face of the story disturbed her, made her think of the years after the accident that had killed her mother and sister, made her remember why she'd longed to be alone. 

"I'm going to take Scott's place as Alpha," said Theo, watching her closely, "and I'd like you to stay in the pack. But I'd never ask you not to be wild and vicious and free. I'd never ask you to try and be a better human. Because I know you, Malia. You're a coyote. Like me." 

"I'm not _just_ a coyote," Malia snarled at him. She was never _just_ anything. In the end, Stiles had known that. 

Speaking of which. "What are you going to do to the others? Stiles? Scott, Lydia? If you hurt them, if you make yourself Alpha, you won't live long enough to enjoy it." 

Theo shook his head ruefully. "Not what I'd hoped for. But you'll come around, one way or another." 

"You think you can convince me?" 

"I think I don't have to follow the mystical rules of shifter packs, and I'll find a way, once I'm Alpha. In the meantime, I want to see my future Beta in action." He smiled his strange, sheepishly smug smile. "Scott's at the hospital with Hayden, should we see who can get there first?" 

He shifted back into a coyote, and ran. 

Malia bolted after, in beta form, not sure whether she should risk a full shift. What if Scott wasn't there, what if she couldn't change back, what if she ended up needing hands for whatever awaited at the hospital? 

But he was pulling ahead, and hands wouldn't do any good if he got to Scott before she could be there to help. 

She kicked off her boots mid-stride, shook out of her overshirt, and let the rest shred as she changed, and ran. 

But it was the wrong choice, because the coyote got caught up in the chase, and before she knew it, Malia was on the wrong side of a locked door from the naked, human Theo. 

She snarled, barked, and cursed him, and herself. 

* * *

Lydia didn't get much of a chance to worry, or argue. She knew she wasn't going to die tonight. Not before a lot more other people had, at least. 

When she saw Theo, she knew it wouldn't do her or anyone else much good to resist. 

Unconsciousness was a relief. 

* * *

Stiles settled in at the station to wait for his father, but Parrish apparently had other plans for the station this evening. Like boiling heat and body theft. 

Stiles would have followed - a werefox could probably outpace that old van, full moon or no - but then he caught a scent that made his skin crawl, would have made his tail fluff up. 

Theo. 

Stiles stepped around a truck to see the werewolf standing, waiting for him. 

"Where've you been, Theo?" Stiles said in an obviously studied tone of casualness, almost mocking. 

"Regrouping, after that text. I underestimated Scott's loyalty to you. I won't make that mistake again. I stayed away from the pack, I stayed away from you. Until I could get the upper hand." Theo shook his head. "I don't get Scott. I don't get what he sees in all of you, other than his own weak nature reflected back at him. I don't get it. He thinks he knows you." Theo waved Stiles's library access card. "But I know exactly what you are and soon, so will the Sheriff." 

Stiles had wanted to tell his dad, had wanted him to know, but he couldn't help freezing for a moment, eyes on the card. 

"You killed the Doctors," Theo continued. "Scott's pack. And you're the one who found them, didn't you? Led the pack there? I'm really, truly impressed. I knew you were dangerous. I didn't quite realize how resourceful you were. And now I want you more than ever." Theo narrowed his eyes thoughtfully at Stiles. "Soon I might be the only one who does. How do you think your dad's going to react when he finds out? You've been keeping it from him for a while. Does he know you're a were? Seems like quite the little secret. His son is a murderer and an animal. Not the son he knows. Dangerous. Volatile. He might not... embrace that. But I do, Stiles. I like that you become something else. That you're not quite human. And it'll make it so much easier to push you over the edge. Especially tonight." 

Stiles was having trouble keeping his shift in check, but that was obviously what Theo wanted. To rub him the wrong way, disturb him, make him wild. But he couldn't let lies get to him. _The sun, the moon... the truth._ "What do you want?" 

"I want Scott's pack," Theo said, smiling a little at Stiles's fraying composure. "Scott's too good to have a pack like you. I came for your darkness. I'm here to bring out the worst in all of you." He darted forward, slamming Stiles against a truck. "I want the worst in all of you." 

Theo peered at him, waiting for something, then slammed Stiles's head back against the truck, hard. That hurts. 

Stiles can feel the fox coming out, and now that the blows have started, he doesn't try to fight it. The moon in his blood can keep him alive. If anyone deserves the brunt of his first moon, it's Theo. 

"What did I tell you," Theo says with his soft, angelic smirk. "Yellow eyes. Because you don't feel guilty." 

The werefox's strengths are speed, evasion, a quick and curious mind. His instincts scream at him to escape, to claw and twist and _get away._ He slams his head into Theo's, drops like a stone and rolls under the truck. 

His heart's thumping. The moon's pulling at him. 

_Listen,_ says the fox. _Don't fall for his tricks. Don't stay in his traps. Get your feet on solid ground, on your own territory._

When it comes to tricky words, Stiles is the fox who can give as good as he takes. 

He fingers the medallion in his pocket. _The sun..._ it's setting. _The moon..._ it's rising soon. _The truth._ Twisting its way in between Theo's slimy words. _Now perk up your ears and listen._

He could hear Theo's lightly crunching footfalls around the truck, the low and melodic sound of his voice. 

He pushed away the worst of the shift, and listened. 

"I know how hollow you are," Theo said. "I know how hollow it all is. You're a storm with an empty eye. You don't care who gets hurt as long as you get what you want. You're a void inside, Stiles, all you need to do is embrace it." 

Rolling out to crouch on the opposite side of the truck, Stiles chuckled. "You're so far off. If you think the eye is the only thing that's important, you're missing the storm." He looked down at his hands, claws that would have freaked out anyone else, appearing like that on the hands he'd known all his life. But he'd known Scott's hands most of that time, too. Scott had changed, but ultimately, he was still Scott. "It doesn't matter how much of me is fox, how much of me is void, how much of me is human. I'll always be all of those things. I get that now. What matters is that I'm me. And I'll never be part of your pack." 

"You're wrong. Scott is the only one of you who's really loyal and selfless. And that's why he's going to die. And you... you'll figure it out eventually. You'll come to me." 

"No, there's something _you_ need to get. The Void is about not caring. It's not about the Nogitsune. The Nogitsune was always perfectly in control. And that's gone. I'm _better_. The Void that's in me is about letting go. It's about realizing I don't have control over everything. It's about trusting the fox, trusting my instincts. And the fox in me is always going to trust my Alpha, Scott. Is always going to trust... my mate. Is _never_ going to trust _you_." 

Theo raised his eyebrows at Stiles. "She's your mate?" He shook his head. "I don't believe it. Maybe you've got some kind of... understanding. But trusting the coyote would be a big mistake." 

Stiles had to laugh. "Malia's better than you think," he said. It wasn't a lie. 

"Or it could be that you're worse than _you_ think. I know it's not about the Nogitsune, Stiles. The Nogitsune is gone, but it's you who's got blood on your hands, more than anyone." 

"Well, I'm about to have more." 

Stiles leapt over the hood of the truck, claws lengthening, getting in a good swipe and then leaping away. He knew grappling with a wolf would leave him at a disadvantage, and that was exactly what Theo was going for - getting him in close, getting him confined. Stiles knew he should keep away, not attack, knew Theo was up to something, but the moon pounded in his blood, and it was too much to ask, to keep his claws away from Theo's smirking face. 

"You like the taste of blood?" the werewolf taunted. "I like the look of bloodlust on you." 

Stiles dove into the next opening, and it was a trap. Theo pressed into the blow, making Stiles's claws sink into his shoulder deeply, and he pulled the werefox flush against him. "If you really want a mate," Theo whispered, "maybe I'll make you mine in more ways than one." His hand groped into Stiles's pocket before the fox could tear himself away, forcefully and viciously. 

Theo was laughing. 

The trap had worked, and now Theo held Stiles's phone in one clawed hand. Gripped it tight, too tight, and it crumbled, sparked, and died. 

"You can't call for help," Theo said. "Even if you howl. I took Malia out of the equation, and Liam and Hayden are concerned with other things. I'm about to go settle things with Scott. Permanently. And you? Well... you're the only person who can find your father in time to save him." 

He hadn't mentioned Derek. 

He didn't know about Derek. The whole woods around Beacon Hills smelled like Hale wolf, but then they had already, since before Theo came here. If it was a little stronger on the pack now, well, clearly Theo hadn't noticed. 

Derek was with Hayden. Maybe needed there. But Stiles had to go after his father, and someone had to go and help Scott before Theo's plans to kill him reached their fruition. 

Stiles sent up a fox-scream, high and ugly and blood-curdling, a call to a mate. 

When a werewolf called back, deep and strong and growling, Theo frowned. 

"That's not Malia." 

"No, it's not." Stiles would have grinned if his pack weren't in danger. He did something like grinning, but there was definitely more fang involved. "You have been a little out of the loop lately. Catch you later," he told Theo, and it was a promise. 

He left the Sheriff's station grounds to clear the smells of many people out of his nose, and catch the scent of his father, find which way he'd gone. 

Derek found him a couple of minutes later. "What's wrong?" he panted as he stopped in front of Stiles, looking him over. "Are you all right?" His nostrils flared. "You smell like blood, and a strange wolf." 

Stiles almost started shaking, now that Theo was gone and Derek was here. "It was Theo. He came back. He took my dad, has him somewhere, and I need to go save him. But now Theo's going to go try to kill Scott." He closed his eyes, breathing raggedly. "I need to know someone's protecting Scott. But I need to go after my dad." 

Derek nodded, but he looked dubious. 

"What?" stiles snapped. 

"Are you sure you should go alone? The moon's rising, and... Scott's your Alpha. Maybe we should..." 

"No, see, I'm pretty sure my dad's my anchor. Knowing he's safe. So I need to go see him safe. I don't think I'll get through this any other way." 

Derek smelled relieved and a little sad and yearning all at once. 

"Okay," he said. "I'll protect Scott. You find your anchor." He started to turn away. 

Stiles stepped after him, pulled him around and kissed him. 

Derek whined softly, reached out tentatively to hold Stiles, to kiss him back. 

It was soft, sweet, perfect, and warm, but it couldn't be long. They both pulled back after a moment. 

"We should go," said Derek. 

"Yeah," Stiles agreed. "But I needed you to know. My dad's my anchor. But you're my mate." 

Derek's eyes widened at the word, then brightened a little. 

"I'll find you later!" Stiles called, already jogging away. 

* * *

He tracked his dad down to an abandoned house that stunk alarmingly of volatile chemicals. Gasoline. Other things. 

When he came through the door to where his dad was tied up, the fear and the awful memories swamped him. Because _Scott._ Scott was in danger right now, and Stiles would do anything to save him, he'd proved that, in a situation so much like this one that it ached, deep in his chest, just to look at. 

And the moon pounded against all that pain, wanted to set it free. 

But his dad was here now, his dad needed his help now. 

And there was a flame, a lit candle on its side on the concrete slab, precipitously close to the pool of fuel on the floor. 

His dad's eyes were on him, and he fought to keep his own eyes golden-brown, and not bright beta-gold. 

Moving too fast might jostle the candle, might spread the flame. Might light up the room. But if he waited too long, the fuel-air ratio would reach its threshold, and the whole room would blow anyway. 

Stiles swallowed. 

His first moon, the Supermoon, and his dad's only hope was for him to be slow, careful, and still. 

Not his strengths even before he'd become a fox. 

But - and Theo couldn't have known this - his anchor was right here. Watching him, looking relieved and sure and like he knew Stiles would get him out of this. 

Stiles wanted, more than anything, to live up to that. 

He stepped into the room, almost panicked, then looked to his dad again, who nodded encouragement. 

He could do this. 

He _would_ do this. 

He wanted it done, wanted to leap for the candle and crush it, crush the threat it represented. But he didn't dare. He just took one step after another, and breathed, deep and steady. 

No splashing. No jostles. He stood right by it, crouched down. Picked it up. And ground it out on the dry stretch of concrete. 

Froze. Listened. Let out a huge breath. And ran for his dad. 

"Are you okay? What did he do to you? It was Theo, right?" Stiles untied the gag first, then the other ropes. 

"I told you he'd slip up, but this is one hell of a slip-up," his dad said, confirming who did this. "I'm all right. Just bruises. He jumped me outside the school. What the hell is going on out there?" 

Stiles ducked out the door, where there was... of course... no car. "You know, Dad, I _really_ wish I could stay and give you a rundown, but I'm pretty sure Scott's fighting for his life right now and I kind of have to go." Stiles avoided his dad's eyes as he spoke. 

"Uh-huh. Well somebody better explain something to me at some point! ...Hey, where are you going? How did you get way out here? Did you walk? ...Stiles! How am I supposed to get back?" 

"You've still got your radio, you'll be fine!" 

"Where the fuck are you _going,_ Stiles?!" 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm glad I was able to keep Theo's whole "I want you" creepiness without having it happen to Lydia (again!), Lydia gets more than sufficient creeperage in canon.
> 
> Next chapter: an entirely warped version of the stuff that happened to Scott. It was going to be part of this chapter, but then... it had bunnies.


	4. Destiny and Plasticity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... this is kind of a dark one. Just putting that out there.

Malia didn't like being trapped. She hated being cornered. 

Fortunately, the door of the hospital room Malia had been trapped in was now open. 

Less fortunately, the creature who'd ripped it off its hinges was now determined to crush her as well. And it was making a decent go of it. 

There were gunshots, and then familiar voices, and the creature ran. Malia's breath came fast and hard, and she slumped to let that take up her attention. 

"What was that?" Braeden asked from beside her. 

"I don't know..." Malia answered. "But probably a chimera. Thanks for the save." 

"That's not why I'm here," Braeden told her. "Your mother? The Desert Wolf? She knows about you, and she's coming to kill you." 

And Braeden cared more about getting her hands on the Desert Wolf than she did about any individual resident of Beacon Hills, Malia was pretty sure of that. "That's why you're back, huh? You need me alive, because I'm your bait." 

"Actually," said Dr. Deaton from a little ways away, picking up a bloody plastic bag labeled 'Donor Marrow,' "I'm fairly certain the two are more connected than you think." 

* * *

Scott had left the hospital after he'd gotten a text from Lydia asking him to come to the library. 

Lydia wasn't at the library. 

Theo was. 

In his hand he had what looked like the end of one of the Dread Doctors'... less human-looking arms. And it was shifting, vibrating/flickering, like the Doctors had done when they were alive. 

"Funny thing," said Theo, watching Scott approach. "The Doctors weren't interested in your pack, except to keep you out of the way. But now that they're gone?" He shrugged. "I'm the only person who's seen how they use all this stuff. And I'm very interested in your pack." 

Scott growled and lunged for him, but Theo threw down his other hand, releasing black powder, and closing the ash circle he'd just stepped out of. 

"What are you doing?" Scott asked, glaring at the other wolf. 

"Oh, just planting a few hallucinations," Theo answered, fiddling with the disembodied arm. "Hayden should be joining us soon." 

* * *

"With the amount of mercury that's in her body right now, she should be dead," Nurse McCall said. 

Liam and Mason looked on in horror. And then, as if things weren't bad enough, her thrashing became much more violent. She pushed away from Melissa, hard. 

"Liam, can you _hold_ her!" she snapped. 

"There's something wrong," said Liam, watching Hayden. "Something _new_ wrong." He tried to grab her wrists, but she ripped free, not seeming to recognize him, or any of them. She struggled to her feet. 

"Hayden!" Melissa yelled, standing in front of her. "You need to lie down. You need to let us help you!" 

Hayden shoved her away, and she flew into the wall, hitting hard, grunting with pain. Mason darted over, eyes wide. "Ms. McCall!" 

"I'm all right," she said, before trying to move, and hissing. "I'll live," she corrected. "Where's Hayden?" 

Mason looked around, but she was gone, and Liam, of course, had followed. 

* * *

Hayden headed straight for the library as if magnetically drawn, and stalked over the ash line as easily as Theo had. Stalked straight to Scott, claws and fangs out, eyes burning gold. 

Scott tried to stop her, but she was reckless, rabid, completely unaware of what she was doing. He had to fight back. He had to. He couldn't keep taking hits like these. 

"Don't hurt her!" Liam yelled, pressing against the ash line. "She doesn't know what she's doing! It's not her fault!" 

"I know that!" Scott gritted his teeth. "But I can't let her kill me." 

"What happened to her? She just suddenly... stopped knowing us." 

"It's like Tracy," Scott gasped between blows. "She's being controlled by dreams." 

"But the Dread Doctors are dead!" 

"Theo can use their equipment." 

There was a low, building growl. "I'm going to kill Theo," Liam spat through his teeth. He hit the barrier. "There must be a way to get through this!" 

"It's possible," said a voice from beside him. "But wolves drain themselves dry trying." 

"Then what do we do?" Liam ground out. 

"We work together," Derek said. He put his hand next to Liam's on the barrier. 

"Now!" he said. And they pushed. 

But the ash line stayed solid, and they were pushed backwards, panting and swearing. 

Meanwhile, Scott and Hayden were each landing more and more savage blows. Scott's arm was broken, he was torn up, bleeding badly. Hayden had her claws in Scott's throat, and despite the mercury streaming from her nose, her grip was only tightening. 

Scott choked, and swore, drew back with his good arm and drove the heel of his hand into her nose. 

Her grip finally loosened, and she reeled backwards with a gurgle, eyes wide and somehow even more empty than they had been a moment ago. 

Scott tried to catch her as she fell, but they ended up both slumping down to the floor together. Hayden wasn't breathing. Her heart gave a few sluggish, heavy thumps, and then stopped. 

Liam screamed. 

Derek held Liam back, because he would have killed himself against the ash line trying to get through, and Scott was already, slowly and painfully, moving Hayden's body towards them. Pushing her over the line so that Liam could hold her. One last time. 

"Oh shit." 

Mason appeared on the outside of the line. "Liam, I'm really sorry, man," he said, not approaching the distraught werewolf. "Scott, Hayden hurt your mom before she got away from us, but I helped her patch herself up, and she says she's gonna be okay." 

"I can't say the same for Scott," Theo said from up in the library's second level. He leapt down, stalking towards Scott, who struggled to get up off the floor. Theo just smiled down at him, gently amused, completely unfeeling. "I thought the inhaler was poetic, but Hayden softening you up for me has its own kind of symmetry." 

"It won't help you win over my pack," Scott said, watching Theo defiantly. 

Theo knelt down, pinning Scott's unbroken arm to the floor, putting the rest of his weight on the Alpha's abdomen. "I think we both know it won't hurt all that much," he said casually, "especially considering you're the one who actually killed her." He took a breath and tilted his head slightly. "Now what are the rules about true Alphas? The stories are never quite clear. You can't kill, or something?" 

"I'm still the Alpha," Scott rumbled, struggling to move out from under Theo. 

"But is that power still so impossible to take?" Theo frowned thoughtfully. "You made me an Omega, Scott. It could have put a bit of a crimp in my original plan. You were special. Only one of your Betas could take that. But a regular Alpha? Any old Omega can take that away from you." Theo flicked out his claws, pressed his hand against Scott's chest. 

Derek growled, tried again to push his way through the energy of the mountain ash line. "Liam!" he snapped. 

Theo tilted his head to one side, considering Derek. "You must be the mysterious new mate. You're hard to notice. You smell like Beacon Hills." 

"No," said Derek. "Beacon Hills smells like me. This is my territory." 

Theo's eyebrows climbed up his face. Then he smiled down at Scott. "Your newest Beta doesn't seem very submissive, Scott," he said. "I'm not sure if you can really do this Alpha thing." His smile widened, and he dug his claws deep into Scott's chest. "That's okay. You won't have to anymore." 

Derek threw himself against the ash line again, harder this time. He growled, deep and heavy, but couldn't push through. "Liam, help me!" he snarled. "Help your Alpha!" 

Liam tore his eyes away from Hayden's face, looking at Derek, then Scott. But before he could decide to move, Scott spoke. 

"No," Scott choked. "Don't kill yourselves trying that. When this ends you'll need your strength for whatever he does next." 

"Scott," Derek argued. "You're our Alpha. We need you." 

"You need to survive," Scott told him, eyes blazing red, though his voice was weak and strangled. "You need to stop. Derek, you know I wouldn't be a good Alpha if I made any other call." 

Derek's jaw tightened, but the blue glow of his eyes faded, and he nodded. He settled for glaring, disgusted and murderous, at Theo. 

"Man, this is messed up," said Mason. "We can't just stand here and watch this happen." He stepped across the line. 

"You too, Mason," Scott gasped out. "He's too dangerous." 

"Fuck that, man, I'm not compelled by the moon to follow you or whatever," he said, and grabbed a chair, hitting Theo in the shoulder and the side of the head. 

The chair shattered, and Theo barely moved, except to sink his claws deeper into Scott's chest. 

"I guess it's about time we ended this," he told them all. He closed his eyes, reaching for Scott's heart, and when he opened them again they were glowing ember-red. 

Derek growled, and from beside him, Liam echoed it. 

Theo stood, stepping away, smiling at his audience. "I'll see you around," he told them. "Or you'll be the Omegas now." Then he stepped out the back door, breaking the ash line as he went. 

Derek didn't spare him a glance. He rushed to Scott's side, but he could hear no breath, no heartbeat. He shook Scott's shoulder, willing him to wake up. 

"Scott!" he snapped. "Wake up _now._ " When there was no response, he started compressions, but kept talking, kept yelling. "I promised Stiles I'd protect you and I don't plan on breaking that. I _know_ you remember what it is to be an Alpha. You feel it in your bones. I've been where you are, Scott. Your power's been drained. But if anyone can evolve past that, it's you. You're a true Alpha! The moon is powerful tonight. It's calling you, so _answer!_ Answer your pack! Your pack needs you now!" 

Scott woke with a roar. His eyes blazed blue. 

Blue. Reflecting the color of Derek's eyes. It didn't sit well in Scott's face, that cold color. 

But he was alive. That would have to be enough. 

Enough to keep his promise to Stiles. 

* * *

Stiles arrived a moment later. He smelled blood and pain, and he rushed to Scott. "Hey, Buddy," he said, looking the werewolf over. "You okay? What's the damage?" 

"Hayden," Scott answered, and his eyes went blue. 

"Oh, shit," said Stiles. "Oh, Scott." He threw his arms around his oldest friend. He didn't need to say any more than that, not after everything that had been said about Donovan. 

Malia had trailed into the library after Stiles, and Braeden and Deaton were with her. Her eyes took in the scene. "Theo," she guessed darkly. 

"Got it in one," Mason answered. "He trapped Scott in here and took over Hayden's brain and made them fight." 

"Then we go after him," Malia said. 

"Where is he, though?" Stiles asked, looking up and around. "What is he doing? How's he going to get a pack without sticking around to try and make us submit?" 

"From what I learned about the Dread Doctors' early research," Deaton said, "I think I might know. Do you know where the chimera bodies are being taken?" 

"Yeah," Stiles answered. "The Nemeton." 

"So how do we get there?" Malia asked. 

"Well, there's a chimera body here," Scott said, gesturing to Hayden. "Parrish will come for her." 

They all looked various shades of subdued, from Liam's grief to Derek's surly frown. 

Parrish did come, a few minutes later, and they all followed his march into the woods, Hayden's funeral procession. It was good that it was slow, because they all felt that was right, and also Scott was barely healed enough to limp along. 

They watched Parrish lay her down and walk away still in a daze, and they all settled in to wait for Theo. 

"What do we do when he gets here?" Malia asked. 

"I'd wait, see what he does," advised Deaton. "If he tries anything... truly inadvisable... with the Nemeton, we should be able to stop him in time." 

Theo strode into the clearing like a storm, dragging Lydia behind him by the claws embedded in her neck. Both Stiles and Malia shifted, wanting to run to her, but Derek put hands on their shoulders, holding them back. Lydia's vitals were stable, and they didn't want to run into this situation without knowing what they'd be up against. 

When Theo jammed a syringe into Tracy's neck, they were all too perplexed to react. He had moved on to Josh before Tracy started to move, and Corey by the time she started to get up. By the time he reached for Hayden, none of them were all that sure that they wanted to stop him. 

The minute Hayden took a breath, Scott's eyes glowed red. 

The four rose like zombies. "You're my pack now," he told them. "And you're going to help me get the rest of them to submit." 

"No," Scott said, rising and walking forward. "Hayden is _mine_." 

Theo looked at him skeptically. "You're in no shape to challenge me for her, Scott," he said. 

"Maybe not, but my pack is." 

"We'll see," Theo said. "We'll see who's still standing at the end of this. I really don't think it'll be you." 

Liam stepped forward from Scott's left side, and Malia, Stiles and Derek from his right. Braeden swung out to the left, eyes on the chimeras and hand on her gun. Mason and Deaton swung out to the right before heading for the Nemeton, and Lydia. 

Theo watched with a smile on his face. "Tracy," he said. "Our two biggest threats are Liam and the Hale wolf. Take them out of play. Corey, the one with the gun." 

Tracy was too fast for Liam and the little fighting experience he'd had, and soon he lay paralyzed on the ground. But Derek was better, and he knocked her back, kept her away. 

Scott could hear Corey closing in on Braeden, and gave a shout. "Watch it, Braeden." He'd have to trust her experience to keep her safe. He hadn't asked for her help, after all, and she wasn't pack. But she had sharp ears, good balance. She might survive. 

Malia stalked towards Hayden with uncharacteristic hesitation. "Scott? How do I play this?" she called over her shoulder. 

"However you need to." Scott's eyes were red. "She's the pack's responsibility. Whether that means taking care of her or... taking care of her." 

Malia sighed explosively, and focused on defending herself. 

Josh came at the pack, and he was met by Stiles. As they closed on each other, Stiles was viscerally reminded that the last time he'd seen Josh, Stiles had been human. 

"Oh my God, why do you smell like... girls. No, that's not right. Why do you smell like Malia and Kira?" 

Josh didn't answer, but his fingertips started to spark with lightning. 

"Oh, shit. Oh shit. You're part kitsune." Stiles backed away, brain scrambling. "I'm guessing coyote, too. Well, that'll make this interesting." 

* * *

While the others were busy, Mason had helped Lydia up and a bit away, checking her over, and now Deaton faced Theo across the stump of the Nemeton. 

Theo smiled. "Aren't you going to try to stop me?" he asked. 

Deaton's dry smile mirrored his. "I'm curious what your next move is going to be." 

Theo bent down and began chalking marks onto the surface of the stump, still strangely undecayed after so many years. "I'm going to finish what the Doctors started," he said. 

Deaton shook his head. "This place, and this power, they're not for you." 

"Well, I'm going to take them anyway." 

"There's some fundamental things I don't think you understand about blood sacrifice. You know the Doctors were planning on giving up their bodies to do this? Well, at least one of them." 

Theo paused for just a moment to look up at him. "I don't believe you," he said then, and returned to his work. 

"That's what I'm counting on," Deaton murmured, not caring if he was heard. 

* * *

Josh's head was tilted to one side, and his eyes had gone black from corner to corner. "You're doomed, you know," he said, watching Stiles. "You won't ever be able to get away from the darkness inside you. The Nogitsune is just waiting to have you again." 

Stiles shuddered, but he shook his head. "Those are some disturbing lies, I'll give you that, but they're still lies," he said. "I know what you are, you can't trick me." He circled Josh, waiting on an opportunity. "A fox can maybe trick another fox, but you're not really all there, am I right, Josh?" Stiles asked. "In fact, I'm thinking the part of you that's most real right now is the part that doesn't want to do this. We can help you, Josh. We can make you part of a real pack." 

Josh lashed out, and Stiles jumped back again. 

"Scott, seriously, what do I do here?" Malia said from where she was struggling with Hayden, trying to restrain her rather than hurt her. The coyote was having more success than Scott had, perhaps because Theo's attention was divided now. 

"Bring her to me," Scott told Malia. "I don't think she's going to need to die again tonight." 

Malia brought her, one hand tangled in her hair to keep her teeth away from Scott, the other clamped around her torso and arms. "You think a bite will work now?" she asked as Scott's fangs came out. 

"One last check - my eyes _are_ red again, right?" he asked. 

Malia nodded, quick and sure. 

"Then yeah," said Scott, and he sank his teeth into Hayden's shoulder. 

She grunted in pain, and then went limp, black blood gushing out of the bite. 

"Is that okay?" Malia asked, even as she carried Hayden over to lie beside Liam's paralyzed form. 

"I think so," said Scott. "It's not silver. I think maybe her body just needs to get more of the mercury out before she starts to turn." 

"Okay," said Malia. "You'll keep an eye out? I'm going to go track down Corey." 

Scott nodded, and settled cross-legged next to Liam and Hayden as they recovered. Mason and Lydia joined him there, after a moment. Lydia was awake, but wobbly, and not inclined to talk, let alone fight, but Mason looked more thoughtful than anything. Maybe even hopeful. After he helped Lydia sit, he turned to Scott, his face all questions. 

"So Hayden's going to be okay?" he asked. 

"I hope so," Scott replied. He watched her as the flow of black blood slowed. 

Mason frowned at her as well. "Is there any possibility you can do that for Corey too? Like, I know he's been dead for a while, but... I really liked him, okay?" 

"Tonight," Scott said, "I think a lot of things are possible that wouldn't be otherwise." 

* * *

Derek knew he'd had no choice but to kill Tracy. In his mind, he knew that. But with her body in his arms, black blood oozing out of her, soft dark hair and face so very young... it reminded him of why his eyes were blue. 

He hardened himself against it. Josh, Corey and Theo were still up and fighting. Stiles seemed to have Josh well enough under control, but Theo was doing something to the broad stump of the Nemeton. Knowing Theo, it couldn't be anything good. 

He approached, and Deaton raised his eyebrows, and Derek only then realized that he was still holding Tracy's body. He lay it down with the others around the stump. 

"What is he doing?" he asked Deaton. 

"I'm not actually sure," the vet answered. "He can't replicate what the Doctors meant to do, not without death." 

"You think this isn't enough death for the Nemeton?" Theo asked, gesturing around at all the bodies. 

"I don't think you understand what it means for your life to be intertwined with the Nemeton's," Deaton replied calmly. 

* * *

So Stiles had eventually taken his belt off and gotten that around Josh, dragging him to where the bulk of the group was sitting without getting too badly shocked. Scott scrambled upright and intercepted them. 

"You think you can deal with a kind of out of control lightning kitsune?" Stiles asked Scott. 

"I always do my best," Scott answered. He shifted into his fangs before grabbing Josh, not minding the shocks, and biting him decisively. 

Josh went rigid and sank to the ground, black and silver liquid gushing out of not just his wounds, but also his mouth and nose. 

The pack watched silently, knowing what was coming, listening for the last beats of his heart. It didn't take long. 

"Do you think he was just dead for too long?" Stiles asked. "He was one of the first." 

"Or maybe..." Scott mused, "he was never meant to be part of my pack." 

"Some people just reject it for no reason at all," Lydia murmured. "Peter told me." 

Mason bit his lip, considering. "Corey's been dead for most of a day now," he began, but he couldn't continue. 

"I'm going to try," Scott told him. "I have to try. One way or another, we have to stop him, and this way, he at least has a chance." 

"But if we take out Theo instead, maybe he'll snap out of it," Stiles pointed out, eyes on the Nemeton. 

"Hayden was dying before Theo got his claws in her mind," Scott reminded him. 

"Yeah, well, it'll at least maybe buy us some time." 

"Go," said Scott. "See what he's doing. And we'll all do what we have to to protect the Pack." 

"Hey, how's it going?" Stiles said to Derek and Deaton. "I was thinking, maybe it's time to punch Theo in the face a couple times?" 

Theo laughed, and put down the last line of his design. "I think you're a little too late," he told Stiles. Then he opened his palm with a claw. " _Anima necte,_ " he said. 

Nothing really happened. 

"That's an amusingly insufficient amount of blood," Deaton told him. 

"Oh, well," Theo said. "I'm still an Alpha." 

"Not for long, you won't be," Stiles told him, pouncing, pinning Theo to the stump. 

Theo didn't seem terribly concerned. "Are you really going to do this?" he asked. "Are you really going to kill again? Your Alpha doesn't like it when there's death that could have been avoided." 

"Yup," said Stiles. "You... you just need killing." 

Theo tilted his head to one side. "There's one thing I don't get. Is this guy really your mate?" When Stiles widened his eyes and gave a short, definite nod, Theo continued. "I don't understand how someone so hollow can have a mate." 

Derek lunged forward and dug his claws into Theo's gut. "I'm a whole lot hollower than him," he told Theo. 

Theo gasped, and squirmed to get out of their grip, but before he could, Deaton plunged a long silver dagger into his heart. " _Anima necte,_ " he said. Then he stepped back, shooing Stiles and Derek out of the way as well. 

Theo bled black, and black, and black, and then silver. 

Back with the rest of the pack, Lydia screamed, and so did Corey, writhing in pain where he was held in Malia's grasp. Scott and Mason looked at each other, questioning. 

"Could this kill him?" Mason asked. 

"I have no idea," Scott answered. "I've never heard of anything like this. But Theo is still his Alpha, they're still connected in some way." 

"Okay," said Mason. "I think you should bite him." 

"I think you're right," said Scott. 

"Yeah, because right now it doesn't seem like it can make things worse." 

Scott bit Corey, and the writhing stopped, and neither of them could be sure whether that was a good thing or not, but it was done. 

Lydia was muttering to herself. "Come to me, my hound," she was saying. "It's time to hunt the dead and bring them to their destinies." 

She stood, and met Parrish when he came back through the trees, both of them looking completely focused on something none of the others could see. She took his hand, and led him to Josh's body, and for the second time, Parrish carried him to the Nemeton stump and laid him down. 

"Burn them," Lydia said. 

Jordan stretched out his hand, and the whole stump caught fire, all the bodies laid out around it, the chalk circle that Theo had drawn, and Theo's body, pinned to the center with the long silver knife. They all burned black, and Derek curled into Stiles's chest, focusing hard on anything but the smell. 

But soon the air was clean again. A sapling grew up through Theo's chest, dislodging the knife, and it grew into a tree, and Theo and the others all crumbled to dust and were absorbed by the roots. And it kept growing. 

The moon was at its most powerful, and they asked it for life. 

The tree grew. 

Corey lived. 

* * *

Once Jordan was done with his part, he'd curled up, naked, on the ground, seemingly asleep, and now Lydia sat, putting a spare sweater over his shoulders (decidedly not hers) and petting his hair. 

Liam and Hayden stuck close to each other and stayed quiet, even once Hayden's healing had truly kicked in and Liam could move again. Scott, still weak, leaned against Malia, and they mostly all sat for a while in dumbfounded silence and wonder, looking at the tree. 

"Who's its power linked to now?" Stiles asked, of course the first to speak. 

"The town as a whole," said Deaton. "As it was meant to be." 

"Through you, by any chance?" Lydia asked. 

"I suppose you could say that," Deaton conceded. 

"And it really needed a sacrifice?" Braeden asked. 

"Doesn't it always?" Stiles asked. "But yeah, what was that about the Doctors giving one of their bodies to the tree?" 

"They were preparing to leave their bodies anyway," Deaton said. "They wanted to transplant their brains into the bodies of supercreatures. That was the end goal." 

Malia frowned. "Brain transplants. Theo said something about them doing those." 

"And it seems they would have had one success, one body to transplant into if they'd lived to see tonight. But it had to be a body that would survive all the mercury they'd been marinating themselves in." Deaton huffed as if disappointed in their lack of creativity. 

Stiles stuck out his tongue. "Yuck." 

Scott's face expressed a similar emotion. "So they only wanted shells. Brainless shells." 

Everyone shivered. 

Malia frowned. "The successful chimera is still out there. I'm not sure if it has any idea what it's doing. In the hospital, it was drinking bone marrow. Why would it do that?" 

"Yeah, it was freaky," said Braeden, but she looked bored, as if that was only a statement of fact to her. 

"Do you know why they took teenagers?" Deaton asked. "Did you know that in one of their previous labs, I found the remains of experiments that must have been done in utero?" 

"Oh God, plasticity." Stiles looked significantly at Lydia. 

"The Doctor that tried to kill Stiles said something about unusual plasticity. Does that mean... stem cells?" Lydia asked. "This chimera craves stem cells for their plasticity? Does that mean Stiles is in danger?" 

Stiles's eyes widened, and he looked around at the others. "What? Why me? Why me rather than any other teenager in Beacon Hills?" 

"That body is only a few months old," Malia explained. 

"Oh, right, that," Stiles said, lips pressing together as he remembered. 

Braeden shook her head. "That... is even more freaky." 

"Then be glad you weren't there when it happened," said Scott. 

"So you're just a big juicy stem cell buffet," Lydia said dryly to Stiles. "It'll be after you, more than anyone... except newborns." 

Stiles blew out a breath. "Right. So let's hope it's got enough humanity left in it to head straight for me, I guess?" 

Derek growled low and ferocious. He hovered protectively near Stiles. 

"Let's hope," said Deaton, "that it doesn't need a continuous supply." 

"Even if it is a threat to Beacon Hills right now," Scott said, "none of us are in any kind of shape to put up a defense. We need to rest. Heal." 

"Yeah, and eat," Malia tossed out. 

Stiles shrugged. "Scott's right. The immediate danger's over. We all need to go home and rest...." He looked at Derek, whose face was all determination and pain. He had no one to go home to, no one except the Pack to spend his down time with. "But you can stick by me if you want." 

"Then I will," said Derek. 

It was probably a good thing that he had company on his journey home, because Stiles was so tired, he didn't even remember half of it. 

Just coming in, curling up, a snuffly kiss below his ear and the comforting smell of denmate. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There was totally going to be more Melissa McCall in this, but the plot kind of pushed her aside. It was a very troublesome and badly-behaved plot that wouldn't sit still. I had to pick my battles. I just want to state for the record that I loved the original Scott resuscitation scene and Mama McCall was kickass!
> 
> I had it in mind to try and echo the way the innocuous scientific term "perigee-syzygy" became eerie with repetition and context with my use of "plasticity," but I think killing off the Dread Doctors so early might have kind of shot that effort in the foot.
> 
> I did not anticipate how much fun it would be to write Alan Deaton.


	5. Transparency and Trust

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is pure Sheriff-perspective fluff.

Even once things had settled down a little, near dawn, there were cleanups to coordinate, reports upon reports to file, to figure out how to file. Deputies to reassure and nudge in the direction of reporting what they'd seen to him, and then waiting to see how the evidence bore it out before letting it leave the department. 

He couldn't send his people out not knowing, not anymore. But he could keep things contained. It'd been a hard call, but it was now a hard-won certainty. 

When the Sheriff finally came home on Saturday afternoon, it was to find that Stiles hadn't made it up past the sofa before he fell asleep, and Derek Hale was stretched out in front of the couch, as if keeping watch. 

Derek's eyes snapped to him as he came in, glowing blue for a moment before wakefulness and recognition set in. The Sheriff just nodded. He hadn't known Derek was back in town, but with the chaos that had been thrashing this town for the past few days, the more experienced werewolf was a sight for sore eyes. 

Stiles didn't stir. The Sheriff decided that three hours' sleep wasn't too much to ask before he tackled the questions that last night had raised. 

"You'll both still be here at five?" he asked at a bare murmur, knowing Derek would be able to hear even from across the room, and his son wouldn't. 

...Probably. 

Derek nodded, and the Sheriff went upstairs to change out of his uniform and collapse into his bed. 

He woke up to the smell of coffee, toast and eggs. In the kitchen, Stiles slumped blearily at the table, staring into a mug, while Derek portioned scrambled eggs onto three plates. 

"Rough night," the Sheriff commented. 

Stiles blinked up at him, then closed his eyes, shoulders relaxing back a little. "Yeah," he agreed. 

He decided to let it go for a few minutes longer, while they all got food into them, but once the eggs were gone, he bit the bullet. 

"The full moon was an eventful one, huh? I think it's time we did a debrief." 

Stiles sighed, then nodded. "I know. It's... going to be hard, though. You're going to hear things you probably don't want to hear. Even if I just keep it to the basics. The things you'll need to know to fill out all the paperwork." 

The Sheriff shook his head. "Stiles, you're _not_ keeping it to the basics. Not this time." 

Stiles looked pained. "But I... there are things...." 

In the background, Derek cleared away the dishes silently, and it was the loudest thing in the room. The Sheriff knew all the reasons that were tumbling through his son's mind, or he thought he might suspect. He thought it might seem like all the reasons he'd considered not telling Stiles everything about his mother's illness. That was not a place he wanted his son's mind to have to go. And it was time to take that gut-wrenching kind of choice away. 

"Stiles, since I knew you were part of all this, I knew I'd have to live a different life, too, to keep up with you. Hard to follow you if you're covering your tracks. And I'm never going to not want to follow you, see what you're getting yourself into. You face choices every day that I'd never have been able to imagine. And you handle it all better than I'd know how. Better than I do, maybe. Melissa told me off, and I think she was right, because it ended up with Kira leaving, at a time when your pack couldn't really stand that loss. So I'm coming to realize that in this town, we either need to trust each other with everything or shut each other out. And I don't want to be the kind of person who you need to shut out. I hope you consider me worthy of trust." 

"It's... Dad. It's not because I don't trust you." 

"It's because you want to protect me. But maybe you could protect me better if I knew what was going on." 

Stiles frowned stubbornly, but then Derek sat down at his side, leaning over to mutter, "If I'd told my parents...." 

Stiles paled, and the Sheriff had to wonder about that, about the specifics of one particular old arson case. But right now, this was about his son, and his son's pack of shapeshifters, and the Sheriff's department, all doing their best to keep themselves and each other and the people of this town alive right now. 

"If we're going to survive this, if we're going to fight monsters effectively without dragging the whole supernatural world out into the light, we need to at least have transparency between the people who know and are trying to keep some kind of order. We need to talk to each other. We need to have systems we can rely on. We need to have trust. This is bigger than just being a father and his teenage son. If we're going to stand against the darkness together, we're going to have to be more than that." 

"So no more lying, and no more going out and arresting people without listening to the pack perspective on the whole thing?" 

"Yeah, that sounds about right. And no more keeping things from me that there's even the slightest chance I might need to know to keep you, and the town, safe." The Sheriff took a deep breath. "Stiles, you need to talk to me. Mikołaj Heronim Stilinski. You need to start talking to me, now." 

Claudia had done that once or twice, called their son by his full name, but he never had before, so Stiles had best know now that he meant it. 

Stiles stood up and paced. "So... you know about the chimeras, that they've been getting out of control and dying. Well, they were created by, basically, a group of supernatural mad scientists who'd stewed their brains in mercury to find a way to escape normal spacetime, and they were trying to create bodies for themselves strong enough to withstand one of their brains being transplanted into them. We killed the three of them on Thursday night, so... at least that's taken care of." 

"But... the chimeras are still around," the Sheriff said, prodding Stiles for more. "Or did you take care of that big one last night?" 

"No, it's still out there," Stiles said, face tight. "And best guess, it'll either be going after little kids, or me, so that's a thing I was definitely going to tell you about. No, last night, we had to deal with Theo, who, surprise! Turns out he was a backstabbing chimera asshole and kind of killed Scott a little bit. It didn't take, though." 

"Right, so. What happened to him?" 

"Scott's boss sacrificed him to the giant tree stump that that other druid was going to sacrifice you to, and now it's a giant magical tree again? Deputy Parrish helped. He's a Hellhound, by the way." Stiles's eyes darted everywhere. "Oh, and Corey and Hayden and Tracy and Josh got brought back to life. The tree helped. But then Tracy and Josh died again." 

The Sheriff blinked. "I didn't even know Hayden was dead." 

"Yeah, well, it was a kind of hectic night, what with the Supermoon and that psychopathic criminal mind being out to get us and Braeden and Deaton coming back to warn us that Malia's mom is coming back to town to kill her." 

Stiles seemed to have come to a tentative stop. 

"I'll... keep that in mind," said the Sheriff. "So those were the basics?" he ventured. 

Stiles nodded jerkily. 

"Keep talking." 

Stiles's mouth worked a little bit before more words could come out. "I know what happened to Donovan," Stiles said, and the Sheriff knew that haunted look in his eyes. "I killed him." 

The Sheriff, he was good at recognizing lies. He had to be; it was his job. He knew what it looked like when his son lied to him. He also knew when not to call people on their lies (which, in his son's case, was most of the time). He wasn't lying now. 

Theo was good, he was very good, but there had been something eerie about the story he'd told, something false, even as it was genuine. And at this moment the Sheriff saw why. He'd half-recognized the character that Theo had been playing. The space he'd been trying to slide his slimy way into. 

Well, it wasn't like the Sheriff had a limited amount of hugs to give out. 

He pulled his son into his arms. "It's okay," he said. "You can tell me. You know I know he was dangerous, even before... all this chimera nonsense." 

Stiles hugged him back. "He said he'd kill you! And I didn't want to, I hated it, but... it just happened! I just wanted to get away! And Theo saw, and he lied to Scott about how it happened, and we got in a huge fight... I couldn't breathe, I thought I was going to lose everyone! And then Lydia came, and...." Stiles suddenly stiffened. 

"What is it?" his dad asked, still quiet and calm, but hating how much his son had had to go through in his short life. 

"Maybe you shouldn't... I'm not sure if I... I'm dangerous now, too," he ended up with. 

The Sheriff put a hand on his son's shoulder, looking into his eyes. "Trust me, kiddo," he said, "you've always been a force to be reckoned with. Now, what kind of creature of the night are you this time? Werewolf?" 

Stiles bit his lip nervously. "Not exactly? Derek... he thought I would have gone wolf if it wasn't for the Nogitsune." 

Derek. The Sheriff had almost forgotten that he was in the room. But if Stiles felt all right saying all this in front of the older werewolf, he supposed it couldn't do any harm. 

"How'd it happen?" the Sheriff asked. 

"Well, since we found out it was Parrish who was taking the bodies, Lydia and I went out to look for them, and I got pretty badly hurt, and Scott had to bite me to save me, and now I'm kind of a werefox?" Stiles mustered a crooked smile from somewhere. "Full shift and everything. Courtesy of getting kicked out of my original body by a fox spirit." 

His dad looked at him for a minute, then nodded. "Okay," he said. "I guess I can deal with that." 

Stiles frowned a little at that. "Is it really that easy? Maybe it shouldn't be. I don't even know how much I've changed, how can you know how much I've changed? I don't know, can you trust someone like me? Like I am now? Because I know I'm a lot different than the son you thought you had." He sat down again, an edge of dejectedness about him. 

The sheriff sighed. "Yeah, I can. I've had a while to get used to the idea of supernatural things happening to you," he told Stiles, and didn't mention how it really didn't make things any better... just easier to roll with when he knew he had to. "I knew it'd change you. And a werefox? You know, in some ways, I'm actually not that surprised? I know the whole... nogitsune... episode affected you more than you wanted to admit. I kept an eye out. There were things that changed." 

Stiles looked concerned. "What do you mean?" Beside him, Derek frowned. 

Stilinski took a breath, smiled a little as he caught a memory. "You know when I really noticed that something was different about you? About the same time you noticed there was something different about me, and you got all up in my space and nosed around me like a curious puppy. Could be you picked it up from the werewolves you keep hanging around, but either way, it wasn't quite human." 

"But I went back to being me, didn't I? After the Nogitsune?" 

"A little different, maybe, but you're still my son. The same person in all the important ways. And in some ways you've grown. You've become more. You're more sure of yourself, and what you know. You don't hesitate when you think you can help. You knew about Theo, you were just as dogged as any cop when you had him on your crime board. You knew trying to trap Parrish was going to go wrong, and you expected to be listened to. Hell, I've caught my deputies following your orders more than once in this crisis. And you were right. You were the best person to judge, in that moment, what needed to be done. Maybe it is about time you and Scott got put on the payroll. Maybe Derek, too. Now that he seems to be around again. For good, this time?" 

Stiles coughed a little in the middle of that, as if he'd inhaled at the wrong time and choked on his own spit. The sheriff's eyes drilled into him. 

"You're that surprised I'd want to make sure the pack sticks around and gives me a hand with all this?" 

"No, it's not that, I...." Stiles's eyes widened. "Yeah, no, that's it. That's absolutely it." 

"Something else life-changing you'd like to share? Something going on with the pack?" 

"Uh... kind of? Maybe? If you think about it, couldn't all events be considered life-changing? After all, every moment makes a difference, Dad, so we have to live in the moment." 

"Uh huh." He watched his son. "I'll remind you of that next time you try to get me to eat raw kale." That didn't prompt any reaction. So this was big. After all that the Sheriff had heard today, he wasn't quite sure he wanted to know what Stiles was still hesitant to tell him. 

But clearly, he _needed_ to know. 

"Out with it." 

"Okay, well, you may have noticed that Malia isn't around as much anymore?" 

Ah. "Did you two have a fight?" The Sheriff knew how seriously his son took the women in his life. 

Stiles's face screwed up. "Well, yeah?" he started. "I mean, kind of. Several. But it's not about the fights. Well, part of it is. But we always got through the fights, we always made things better. I'm pretty sure we're not coming back from this." 

"Oh. Son, I know how much you care about Malia. If anyone can make things right with her, it's you." 

Stiles's face now was apologetic. "I kind of don't want to?" 

"Why." 

"Um. Well, you know how you said that I'm more sure of what I know, since the Nogitsune? Well, it's been a lot more... intense... since I got bitten. Whatever part of me that has all these animal instincts, imperatives, it's... bigger. More. When I'm a fox? I don't know as many things, but I _know_ the things I know. And I _know_ I'm meant to be with... someone else." 

Huh. "And does this 'someone else' have a name?" 

Stiles's eyes flicked to Derek. Derek Hale knew her? Was she pack? As far as he knew, the only women in the pack right now were Malia, Hayden and Kira (both of whom were very much spoken for), and Lydia. 

"Is this about Lydia again?" 

"No! God, Dad, no. _So_ over that. I mean, not that she isn't the radiant goddess I always suspected her to be, she is very much that. In fact, she's kind of been my backup best friend through the worst of this mess. But the operative word there is definitely 'friend'." 

Wait... _Lydia_ was the alternate best friend in this scenario? But Derek was the one who was here, sitting through all of this next to Stiles, quietly supportive, watching Stiles fondly and sitting close enough to be a physical support if necessary.... 

And then Stiles reached out to Derek and entwined their fingers, and Sheriff Stilinski suddenly felt like something of an idiot. 

Especially after that time when Stiles had discovered the Sheriff's freshly renewed dating life and had mentioned, rather pointedly, that the range of possible dates included men. 

"Uh huh," said the Sheriff. 

Derek kind of looked like he had indigestion. 

"Dad," said Stiles. 

"And is this... supernatural knowledge that he's the one you're supposed to be with... reciprocated?" 

"Yes," said Derek, but if anything he looked more uncomfortable, more guilty. 

Stiles leaned up against him, shoulder pressed against shoulder. "It's okay," he told the man beside him. Then he looked up at the Sheriff. "Dad. You said it yourself. I might not legally be an adult, but I know what I'm doing." 

The Sheriff cleared his throat. "Speaking of not legally being an adult...." 

Derek's face was pained, but Stiles didn't even blink. "We haven't done anything but kiss, and we're not planning on it until my birthday." 

"So this isn't a physical... imperative." 

"Not yet." The corner of Stiles's mouth told him he might not like what his son had to say next, but Stiles found it hilarious. "Foxes mate in spring." 

The Sheriff's hand went up to cover his eyes. "Well, that's... great. Just great. Thank you for that." 

"Hey, you were the one who asked for everything there's even the slightest chance you might need to know." 

"Yeah, yeah. Get out of here, the both of you." When they got up to leave, he yelled after them, "Be careful! Watch out for each other!" 

"We will!" his son yelled back. 

They walked away still holding each other's hands. 

The Sheriff suspected that being a father was never going to stop being one of the most surprising and difficult things in his life, werewolves, mad scientists, and being sacrificed to magic trees included. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope that wasn't too confusing! It's fun but difficult, trying to blend the fox!Stiles story with the canon plot, which is intricate. As always, if you have any questions, please ask!
> 
> I'm taking a little break from this series, but I do plan on coming back to it and dealing with the loose ends, like:
> 
> • the marrow-sucking chimera  
> • Kira  
> • the Desert Wolf
> 
> Anyway hope you enjoyed! Until next time!


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